Aug 20 2008
Money, Part III
In our last two posts about money, we presented our take of the money game, which is essentially the moving of zeroes from one account to another. Zeores coming in is a desirable outcome, and zeroes going out is an undesirable outcome. And the more zeroes in your account– or to be precise, in your control– the better! We asked you to take a look at that game, and determine whether it was a game worth obsessing over, losing sleep over, being stressed about. Sure, it is a game you may leverage to create certain outcomes in your world, but it need not consume you, as we know you have come to understand.
Now, there are essentially three ways to relate to any game. You can play the game, not play the game, or leverage the game.
Say you are at a party. Someone breaks out the Scrabble. If you love Scrabble, then you might play the game for the pleasure of playing it. If you do not like Scrabble, you might choose not to play. Or, whether you like Scrabble or not, you might see playing the game as an opportunity to get to know some of the other partygoers better. In the first case you are relating to the game by playing it, in the second by not playing it, and in the third by leveraging it to achieve some other purpose than the game was designed for.
Within the game of money are many mini-games. For example, consider the mortgage game. If owning a home inspires you, then you might happily play the mortgage game. As long as your mortgage isn’t taking away more zeroes than you’re bringing in, then the game is working, because it’s providing you with the home you desire.
If the idea of home ownership does not inspire you, then obviously you would not play the mortage game. You might play the renting game instead, or even the couch-surfing game. Or, if the mortgage game would take away more zeroes than you are bringing in, you would not play anyway, whether you want a home or not.
If you are using the mortgage game not as a means to afford a home (the purpose of the mortgage game), but with the primary intention of bringing in more zeroes, the you are leveraging the game. You may or may not be inspired to own a home, and you may not even like the mortgage game, but you play anyway because you can leverage the equity of your property to bring in more zeroes.
We see these as the three essential ways to relate to the mortgage game. We would say, if you are relating to the mortgage game in a particular way that is not working for you, stop relating to it that way. Move on to another relationship with the mortgage game that might work better. You can do so with grace and integrity if you choose, it need not upset your life too much. But playing a game after it has ceased to be fun is rather silly. It means that you have forgotten that it is just a game, after all. Nothing is more of a drag than when people just don’t know when to put the Scrabble away and get on with the rest of the party.
There is no game that you have to play. This is a daring statement, we understand, because there is a lop-sided focus on playing the requisite games in your culture. Advertisments, politicians and religious leaders are always saying, play this game! No, play this game! Play this one instead! You governments tell you that you must play their games, and so you all have government issued IDs and pay your taxes. The banks tell you that you must play their games, so you all have bank accounts, mortgages, investment portfolios and so on. Your food producers tell you that you must play their games, so you ingest insecticides and artificially altered DNA with your food. Your medical professionals tell you that you must play their games, so your vibrant children are made into zombies and your bodies are covered with surgical scars.
We ask you the same question that we asked about the money game. Are these games serving you? Are they good games? Is your relationship to these games moving your life forward, opening your hearts, awakening your minds?
We generally do not give revolutionary advice, but it’s only revolutionary if you believe that you MUST play certain games. Our revolutionary advice is this: if your relationship to any particular game is not working, change it to a relationship that does work.
If you are playing a game that is not working, consider leveraging the game. For example, perhaps the money game has made you unhappy, confused, and resentlful. All right, you don’t have to play anymore. But perhaps you might leverage certain aspects of it to suit your needs. It is not likely that you will choose not to play at all, but there are many in your world who have chosen that. They live in your monastaries, in your homeless shelters and remote villages.
Look at some of the mini-money games out there. Take your full-time job, if you have one. Is the game of trading your time, energy and attention for zeroes working for you? More importantly, is it fun? Is it bringing you joy, or are you inspried to bring joy to it? Are you waking up in the morning enthusastic about playing? If your answer to any of these questions is no, can you think of a new relationship to that mini-game that might work better for you? Can you leverage the game? Is it perhaps time to stop playing? Thousands of the wealthiest people on your planet got wealthy because they either leveraged or altogether stopped playing the “working for a living” game, which turned out to be their most powerful possible relationship to that particular game.
We invite you to take on this dialogue with yourself. If you do choose to change your relationship to a particular game, but you are not sure how to do it with integrity or in a way that will serve your life, we encourage you to find people who can assist. There are many fantastic money game coaches.
As you relate powerfully to the games of life, your inspiration, enthusiasm and vitality will grow. Wonderful!
Enough about money from us!
Michael